Professor Philip Gorski emphasizes tradition in 'Home' lecture

Professor Philip Gorski spoke about the value of tradition as part of the Humanities Center’s “Home” lecture series in Linderman Library on Thursday afternoon.

Gorski, a sociology professor at Yale University and the co-director for its Center for Comparative Research, began his lecture with an overview of his most recent book and work in progress, “Prophetic Republicanism: The American Civil Religious Tradition.”

According to Gorski, the focus of the title and prospective subtitle for his book is the civil religion as a tradition.

Gorski split up his lecture into three distinct parts: first defining civil religion and tradition, then sketching out the development of the tradition and finally defining its broader political and cultural implications.

Throughout his talk, Gorski referred to a founder of the idea of civil religion, Robert Bellah.

“Bellah says that the civil religion is woven out of two strands of thought: prophetic religion and civic republicanism,” Gorski said. “Again, I agree.”

He then added to Bellah’s definition of civil religion.

“First, I prefer to conceptualize it as a tradition, rather than a myth, as something that contains truth as well as confers meaning,” he said. “Second, I prefer to think of it as one of several competing traditions.

“Third, I think the history of that tradition is not just one of decline; it also involves recuperation, rearticulation and revival,” he said. “Fourth and finally, I do not think the tradition is empty or even broken; however, I do think the civic republican thread has become increasingly attenuated.”

Gorski focused the remainder of his speech on tradition, which he defined as sustained engagement with enduring principles and ideals.

He referred to Henry Newman, a converted Catholic, to further comment on his definition of tradition.

“For him, tradition was more like a river that grows and develops over time,” Gorski said. “On this, I side with Newman.”

He explained that the meaning of this metaphor is that tradition is ingrained in history and has been developing over time rather than being a founding myth from the origin.

Gorski concluded his speech by connecting such theories to American tradition and Barack Obama’s civil religion.

“It must be said that Obama pulls only gently on the republican strand,” he said.

He described Obama as a more prophetic speaker similar to Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. and several other famous American orators.

Gorski also commented on the underperformance in achieving “American exceptionalism.”

“Where we have especially fallen short is in our commitments to equality and unity,” he said. “As gentle as his jeremiads are, they have sparked outrage amongst religious nationalists, who charge him with denying American exceptionalism.”

Gorski reminded the audience of two important takeaways. He explained that progressives should remember tradition because it is in American development, as well as their civil religion development.

Additionally, he emphasized the idea of development and continuous growth of tradition.

“I think the most important part of Gorski’s speech was when he talked about those that call themselves liberals and progressives today,”Alison Mousseau, ’14, said. “He has a big point. The idea that tradition is something that will always be there, and you can’t get rid of it.”

Victoria Drici, l’15, found the Gorski’s lecture particularly insightful because she is currently taking Professor Khurram Hussain’s Religion and Violence class.

“The greatest takeaway was the comprehensive definitions of freedom and tradition, which lead to a complete understanding of America’s civil religion,” she said. “America’s civil religion is a concept that I felt was very extremely important to realize since it is a huge part of our country’s identity.”

Samuel Reznik, ’15, said he was moved by Gorski’s remarks about tradition.

“People oftentimes forget our history and how important traditions have developed our country and define America today,” he said.

Throughout the 2013-2014 academic year, the Humanities Center has scheduled a collection of seven speakers to discuss the topic of “home.” According to the Humanities Center’s website, “home calls for harmony and unison, establishes the difference between a cozy in and a potentially perilous out. Home has often established a boundary between the public and the private.”

The last lecture in the series will feature writer Pico Iyer speaking April 3 at 4:10 pm in Linderman 200. Iyer’s lecture is titled, “Where is Home?”